Death of Eva Smith in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Introduction In the play "An Inspector calls" by J.B. Priestly, the main focus of the plot is the death of Eva Smith. In this essay I will argue that Mrs Birling was the most responsible for her death. I will first describe the context of the play, the character Eva Smith and the circumstances of her death, put up my arguments about why the blame should mostly be put on Mrs Birling and then on the rest of the characters. Context The play is set in the dining room of the Birling's house in Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands, on an evening in spring, 1912. Eva Smith Eva Smith had a terrible life. She was "a pretty, lively young girl with big dark eyes and soft brown hair". She was "fresh, charming, warmhearted, articulate, mature and intelligent". After all the trouble she'd had during her life she decided to end it in the first week of April 1912 aged 24, by "swallowing a load of disinfectant and died after several hours of agony". The Characters To a degree all of the characters are responsible for the death of Eva Smith but I think Mrs Birling is the one who should have the most blame put on her. This is because when Eva came to her she just needed a little bit of help to get her 'up and running' again but Mrs Birling did the opposite and refused her. As it was the last straw she decided she couldn't take it any more and killed herself in the most horrible way you could imagine. Mrs Birling Mrs Birling is about fifty. She is a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior. When Eva Smith came to her at the Brumley Women's Society, she came at the lowest point in her life as she had been turned down from many different jobs, was pregnant with a father who she didn't want to
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
Priestley mainly uses the characters in the play to present his views, especially Mr and Mrs Birling, to present his ideas about class and society. In the Birling family, Mrs Birling is the most upper class, and is always referring to the lower class female factory workers such as Eva Smith as ‘girls of that class’. She seems to think that working class people are not humans at all.
she needed more money. So she said to him give me 25/6 because of that
...d few such as Anna, Stella, and Alice who broke free of the poison, lived their lives as Sam Toms’ did who rooted the family. They as he did lied, cheated, manipuled, and kept secrets to try to live a happy life which in actuality their lives were anything but.
J.B. Priestley's Motives Behind An Inspector Calls J.B. Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894. His mother
makes each of them aware of the part they had played that lead to her
basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and
Priestley’s Main Aim in An Inspector Calls JB Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ to enhance the message that ‘we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This is something Priestly felt strongly about and he succeeded in representing his views through the character of the Inspector in the play itself. He wanted to communicate the message that our actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, always affect others.
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
family, but it must not be 'cosy’ or homely. The lighting is to be a
Birling is presented as a self-centred capitalist very early on in the play. His pleasure in the marriage of his daughter is purely for his own profit. "Now you've brought us together and perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birling are no longer competing but are worki...
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
At the start of the play, “the four Birling’s and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other”, Priestly here is telling us about the status of women, as Mrs Birling is not equal to her husband so she is removed. Nevertheless it might indicates to that the two parents got control in the family where the older generation is against the younger generation.
Mr Birling acts just the same way through the whole play. He is a selfish character that only thinks for himself and his family. “If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?” Mr Birling only care for himself and takes no responsibility to her death. As we go near the end of the play, he shows that he’s more worried about the money instead of Eva Smith and his grandchild.